Alpha Milestone

Ignoring the Freeze Process
Ignoring the freeze process and introducing new packages anyway can result in your package being reverted or reduce the chances of receiving an exception

• At Alpha Freeze, all packages should testable and feature complete--whether they are "official features" of the release or not
• Freezing the package collection makes sure there is adequate time to prepare and test the Alpha Release before making it publicly available.
• Changes to Critical Path Packages after Alpha Freeze must follow the exception process described here.
• Changes to non-Critical Path Packages are peer-driven via Bodhi. They do not require an exception from Release Engineering, but they should use the established Bodhi peer-review, karma system.
• New packages can still be reviewed, added in CVS and built
• Development builds of packages can continue, however they will not be included in the test release unless you request a break of the freeze for your build.

Exceptions

Requesting an exception

If you believe there is a good reason for you to break the Beta freeze, you must request an exception.

1. Build and test your package before submitting anything.
   

   Build and test first!
   Do not omit this step.
2. Submit the freeze exception request by filing a Release Engineering Ticket, or by running make tag-request in your package module. Please include the following information:
   • A description of what you want to change
   • Rationale for why the change is important enough to be allowed in after the freeze
   • The koji build nvr (name-version-release)
   • Impact of not accepting the change at this point of the schedule
   • Description of testing you've already done on the development to help reduce the risk

Evaluating requests for exception

The Release Engineering team will evaluate your request and provide feedback.

• Approval comes in the form of +1's (meaning Yes or I approve).
• Two +1's (without any negative feedback or -1's) are necessary to build. If there is negative feedback, conversation ensues and a new vote is taken.

If your request is accepted, your package will be tagged for inclusion in Rawhide.

If your request is denied, your package will not appear in Rawhide until the freeze ends. If you disagree with Release Engineering's decision, you may enter an appeal with FESCo. To start the appeals process with FESCo create a ticket with FESCo.

Once the Alpha freeze has lifted (near the time the Alpha release is made public) changes will be allowed without special request. We still ask that you keep your changes to bugfix in nature to preserve the stability of the release as we work and test towards the final release.